"So since the day before yesterday——"
She did not finish the sentence. She ran to the caravan, up the steps, into it. Almost on the instant she came out of it with a small suit-case and a cloak.
"I'm off," she said. "I'm coming with you. There isn't a moment to be lost!"
She cranked up the engine herself, giving her orders the while:
"I give the car and the three children into your charge, Saint-Quentin. Follow the red line I have drawn on the map. Double stages—no performances. You can be there in five days."
She took the seat beside Davernoie. The car was already starting when she caught up the captain who was stretching out his hands to her. She dropped him among the portmanteaux and bags in the tonneau.
"There—keep quiet. Au revoir, Saint-Quentin, Castor and Pollux—no fighting!"
She waved good-bye to them.
The whole scene had not lasted three minutes.
Raoul Davernoie's car was by way of being an old, old model. Therefore its pace was but moderate, and Raoul, delighted to be taking with him this charming creature, who was also his cousin, and his relations with whom, thanks to what had happened, were uncommonly intimate, was able to relate in detail what had taken place, the manner of their finding d'Estreicher, and the incidents of his captivity.